


Things Will Come Out Right Now (We Can Make It So)

by eafay70



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Borussia Dortmund, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-30 02:10:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8514607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70
Summary: Five ways in which the American wunderkind was comforted by his BVB family.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blue_Night](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Night/gifts).



> It took longer than it should have to explain the idea behind this, for which I apologize, but I hope you think it was worth it!
> 
> For purposes of this fic, let’s say that this is a normal week in the football world, rather than an international break.
> 
> Title is from “No One is Alone,” my favorite song from “Into the Woods.”

1\. Julian (Weigl)  
Christian’s doorbell rang. The Pennsylvanian dragged himself to the front door and looked through the peephole. With a sigh, he asked, “Julian, what is it?”  
“I’m here to cheer you up.”  
Christian reluctantly opened the door and allowed his fellow center to enter. “And why would I need cheering up?”  
“Because your country just elected Tr-”  
“Do NOT say his name in front of me!” Christian’s tone became much angrier. “You know, I spend my childhood bombarded with political ads every four years, knowing that my vote would actually matter in a swing state! Then I turn 18, and not two months later, I vote, and my state goes for HIM!” He sat down on the couch, clenching his fists as if he could choke his homeland blue and make the nightmare end.  
“Look, Christian…” Julian sat down next to his teammate. “I don’t know how exactly things work over there, and I don’t understand everything you just said. But I can guess you’re unhappy, mad, sad – something like that.”  
“I’m scared,” admitted Christian. “How can I represent a country that chose a scumbag? I never should have played for Klingsmann. I should have waited for Croatia to call.”  
“No, you shouldn’t have.” Julian rubbed his friend’s back. “Think about Messi. He decided to stick with Argentina after all the grief they gave him because he wanted to fix things. He wants to help Argentina improve, and he wants to do it as an Argentine.”  
“I’m not the American Messi, Ju.”  
“I haven’t said you were. But you can show the world what Dortmund already knows, what all the Bundesliga already knows: America rocks. This is all less than ideal, but you and the rest of your team can demonstrate that America’s better than this, hm?”  
“I guess so.” Christian managed a small smile. “Danke shain.”  
“Butchering my language in thanks for all my wise words?” Julian laughed it off before offering Christian a fist bump, which led into their “super-secret center handshake.”

2\. Aubinter  
It began to drizzle in Dortmund not long after Julian left. Christian sighed; he hadn’t wanted Julian to babysit him all day, but the change in weather was dampening his mood. He wondered if the angels were crying over the results, like so many of his compatriots were doing according to Facebook.  
Someone began to knock on his door. “Oh, Christian! We have a surprise for you!” It was Auba, apparently.  
“You could just knock like a normal person,” said a second voice, specifically that of Auba’s boyfriend, Matze.  
Christian opened the door. “Hey, guys. Come on in.”  
“Thanks,” said Auba. “We have a little surprise to help you get rid of your anger.”  
“We’re not saying that anger is unhealthy!” Matze seemed less than enthusiastic about Auba’s idea. “But we don’t want you to bottle it up, of course.”  
“Uh, true,” said Christian hesitantly. “What do you have?”  
Auba dramatically placed a large package in BVB wrapping paper on the kitchen table. Christian opened it to reveal a large pillow embroidered with the word “Idioten.”  
“I presume that means idiot?” His visitors nodded. “Uh…thanks?”  
Matze sighed. “It’s meant to be a stress reliever. Observe.” He stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Idioten! The refs who ignore fouls against my beloved Pierre are idiots!” He then formed two fists and began punching the pillow with so much force that Christian could practically hear “Gonna Fly Now” in the background.  
“You see?” Auba grinned. “Matthieu now feels much better!” The Freiburger nodded as the Gabonese continued, “Give it a go!”  
Christian cleared his throat. “Idioten! America is full of idiots! And now the biggest one of them all could start a nuclear war!” He began to punch, putting all his might behind every swing. Finally, he slumped and gasped for breath. “Danke. That helps.”  
“You’re welcome!” Auba snickered at his boyfriend. “I told you he’d like it!”

3\. Marco, Mario and Erik  
Christian arrived at training relatively early, not wanting to repeat Auba’s pre-Champions League mistake of tardiness. (OK, being late to practice wasn’t the only reason Auba had had to miss the match against Sporting. But in Germany, it was probably reason enough.)  
“Christian!” Erik walked up to him in the locker room. “How are you feeling?”  
“Better, thanks,” he answered honestly.  
“Hooray!” Marco and Mario appeared from the showers. (Christian decided not to overthink what they were doing in the showers together before training.) Mario gave Christian a hug and said, “You’re not unhappy about the election anymore!”  
“Um…not exactly?”  
Marco sighed. “Look, you have the club behind you. The V in BVB is for Verein – we stand together, no matter what. Das ist echte Liebe.”  
“Exactly.” Erik slapped Christian on the back in a bromantic gesture. “We’ll keep the press from asking you stupid questions. Don’t worry.”  
“Thanks.” Christian grinned. “Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na!”  
“HEY HEY HEY, B-V-B!”

4\. Emma the Bee  
Matchday had arrived. Christian stayed in the protective crowd of his teammates as best he could while moving toward the press conference, but people started to pull him aside. “Christian! What do you think of -”  
Before anyone could say that evil name, Christian found himself in a bear hug…or, rather, in a slightly-anthropomorphic-bee hug. Emma the Bee, it seemed, didn’t want anyone talking to her favorite American. (OK, Christian had no way of knowing if he actually was her favorite American, since she wasn’t anthropomorphic enough to talk, but he felt like flattering himself a bit.)  
Tuchel eventually walked over and spoke to the mascot. “Emma, Schatz, we need Christian to get ready for the match. The journalists have taken the hint, I promise.” The bee released her grip, pressed her thumbs, and skipped away.  
“That was…unexpected. But good.” Christian followed the coach to the locker room.

5\. Felix  
Christian didn’t mean to take a very long time in the showers after the match. So when he exited the showers, he was surprised to see everyone else gone – excluding Felix, his crush, wearing only a towel. This could be good or bad. “Hi, Felix.”  
“Hey.” Felix was obviously checking him out. “You know, maybe there’s a bright side to the orange clown being elected.”  
“Oh?” Christian was beginning to think this was going to be bad. “Like what?”  
“You have an excuse to use your Croatian citizenship.” Felix stepped closer, his voice dropping to a husky whisper. “You can stay here in Germany.”  
“True.” Christian decided to take a risk and proceeded to check Felix out. It was a very pleasant sight; he could only hope his towel-clad body didn’t betray just how pleasant. “Would you like it if I stayed?”  
“Very much.” Their lips met.  
While it would be an exaggeration to thank the president-elect for the circumstances which led to the proof that Felix liked him back, Christian could now say that he was OK with how things turned out, at least on a personal level.

**Author's Note:**

> Explanations:  
> -Swing states are seen as having the most impact in the presidential election because they aren’t assumed to favor one candidate over another; the other states are safe states, meaning there’s a predictable base of support for a particular candidate. Pennsylvania, being one of the swing states, gets a lot of attention from campaigns in various ways, including political ads at practically every commercial break. In contrast, a safe state like New Jersey (where I live) doesn’t see nearly as many ads because everyone predicts that we’ll vote a certain way, so there’s no point in spending the money.  
> What does all of that mean? Well, let’s say you live in a safe state, but you don’t have the same party affiliation as the majority of the state. (My hometown, for example, has a lot of Republicans, but New Jersey is a safe state for the Democrats.) You might feel that your vote doesn’t matter because it won’t change the outcome of your state. Or, if you do share the state’s party affiliation but don’t like the party’s candidate, you might feel that your vote isn’t worth anything because your party will win anyway. In a swing state, your vote is likelier to change the outcome because you can’t predict which party will win. Christian would have grown up knowing this about Pennsylvania, so it would be very frustrating to see his state go the way it did when it wasn’t guaranteed to do so.
> 
> -Democrats are associated with the color blue, and Republicans with the color red. This is the opposite of how most other countries associate colors with political parties/ideologies, and my parents say American politics used to associate red with the left, as in other lands. I don’t really know how the switch occurred, but I was always taught that “Republicans are red and right,” so it’s been that way for quite some time now.
> 
> -Due to a popular song in which the phrase “danke schoen” rhymed with “pain,” many Americans mispronounce the word “schoen.” It drives at least some German speakers (specifically, the ones whom I've befriended) crazy.
> 
> -It really is drizzling today where I live. The line about the angels crying with us is what my grandmother said at lunch today.
> 
> -“Gonna Fly Now” is the theme from the movie “Rocky,” heard during the training montage when he runs up the museum stairs. It appears in so many dramatic moments so often that one might call it overplayed. I personally don’t.
> 
> -The day before the UEFA Champions League match against Sporting CP, Auba went to Milan for a party, which was against the club’s rules. He was caught when pictures of him at said party showed up on Instagram. The following day, he was ten minutes late to training. He spent the match in the stands. Given the German tendency towards punctuality, it is my personal hypothesis that Auba would have been punished in some form or another for being late, even if he hadn’t gone out of the country just before a big match.
> 
> -BVB stands for Ballspielverein Borussia: “Ball Game Union [of] Prussia.” (It makes more sense than my English translation, I promise.) The German translation of “United States” uses a form of the same word: “Vereinigte Staaten.”
> 
> -“Echte Liebe” means “true love.” It’s a motto for Dortmund.
> 
> -The chant is the first one I managed to figure out while watching a soccer match. It’s not a very fancy one, but I’m proud of myself for understanding it nevertheless.
> 
> -My profile doesn’t lie: “soft spot for cute mascots.” In fact, my least favorite thing about my beloved Werder Bremen is the lack of a cute mascot! Emma the Bee is the cute mascot belonging to BVB Dortmund.
> 
> -I’m guessing Emma doesn’t speak, but I could be wrong. If ever I make it to Germany, I’ll swing by Dortmund long enough to find out (hopefully longer).
> 
> -Pressing one’s thumbs is the German equivalent of giving a thumbs up: it wishes someone good luck. I’ve been told most Germans give thumbs up nowadays, but I don’t care.
> 
> If anything doesn't make sense, including but not limited to the above explanations, let me know!
> 
> ADDENDUM: I just read an interview in which Christian said he didn't even register to vote because he didn't want to vote for either candidate. My spirits are dropping again.


End file.
